Sports briefs: April 12

With runners at first and second, and Kentucky trailing by one run in the bottom of the eighth inning, senior Erika Silence hit her second homer of the season over the wall in deep center to give the Cats a come-from-behind 9-7 win over Arkansas in eight innings in the opening game of a Southeastern Conference doubleheader Wednesday at the UK Softball Complex. The Razorbacks answered with a 7-3 win in the second game of the series to earn a split.

Following the two games, UK is 19-22 and 6-8 in league action. Arkansas is 20-19 and 4-15 in SEC play.

The Cats' offense was at its best in the opening game, accounting for a season-high 19 hits, including home runs from Silence, sophomore Emily Jolly and senior Brittany Cervantes. For Cervantes, it was her fourth consecutive game with a home run.

Quigley earns SEC tennis' weekly honor

Kentucky men's tennis senior Eric Quigley, ranked third in the nation, was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week after defeating two highly ranked singles players and helping the Cats clinch at least a share of the SEC regular-season title last week. He also earned the honor on Feb. 1 after becoming the winningest singles player in school history. Quigley started the weekend with a three-set win over No. 15 Artem Ilyushin of Mississippi State. He also had a come-from-behind win over No. 19 Nik Scholtz of Mississippi.

TRACK AND FIELD

Kentuckian sets American masters mark

Kevin Castille of Nicholasville was named USA Track and Field's Athlete of the Week after setting an American record for the 10,000-meter run in the masters age 40-44 division.

Castille, who turned 40 last month, ran a time of 28 minutes, 57.88 seconds in the Stanford Invitational last Friday. He finished 19th overall in a field filled with athletes nearly half his age. The Louisiana native finished only 36 seconds behind Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein, who won the race.

The previous American record was more than a minute slower than Castille's time. Paul Aufdemberge held the previous record of 30:04.43 for seven years.

"I didn't have a great race, it was really crowded, but it wasn't bad for not having done track races in the past two years," Castille told USA Track and Field. "You forget how to race in an aggressive crowd."

Castille didn't run for nine years after college, and only returned to the sport in the early 2000s. Castille moved to Eugene, Ore., trained with Team Eugene and was able to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Trials in the 10,000. He now lives in Nicholasville, where he works as a volunteer track coach and personal trainer.

"I am 40, but I had a 10-year period where I didn't run," Castille said. "It may have hurt me, but I think it helped me. I'm not a beat-up 40-year-old."

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Petrino, mistress were in frequent contact

Former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino and his mistress exchanged more than 4,300 text messages and nearly 300 phone calls over the past seven months — on game days, before dawn and even as the police report that hastened his downfall was being released to the public, according to a review of his business cellphone records by The Associated Press.

The messages, among some 300 pages of records released under a Freedom of Information Act request, appear to include picture and video files, though there was no way to verify the content. But the records clearly show a married father of four in frequent contact with Jessica Dorrell, a 25-year-old former Razorbacks volleyball player.

Petrino was fired Tuesday night for failing to disclose his relationship with Dorrell, who he hired last month without disclosing his conflict of interest. Athletics Director Jeff Long said he had determined their relationship had been ongoing for a "significant" amount of time, but he did not say for how long.

The cellphone records show Petrino and Dorrell were in contact at least as far back as Sept. 12.

NFL

Parcells sticking with retirement

Bill Parcells' initial reaction was to help Sean Payton, but ultimately the former NFL head coach decided he was too comfortable in retirement. Parcells spoke with ESPN — where he works as an analyst — about his decision this week to remove his name from consideration for the New Orleans Saints' job.

"In my mind, I didn't really feel an inclination to do that," Parcells said of taking over as interim coach while Payton serves a year-long suspension for his role in the team's bounty scandal. "My real feelings were about his welfare ... I've been out quite a while now and I have another life and I'm pretty happy with that."

Parcells has not coached since 2006, when he finished four years with the Cowboys. He'll turn 71 this summer and was a finalist for the Hall of Fame in February. Had he returned to the sideline, he would have had to wait at least another five years before reconsideration for the Hall of Fame.

NHL

Flyers, Predators win playoff openers

Jakub Voracek beat Marc-Andre Fleury from in close 2:23 into overtime to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 4-3 comeback victory over the host Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Sidney Crosby, Tyler Kennedy and Pascal Dupuis scored for the Penguins, but Pittsburgh struggled after dominating the first period.

Tiger Woods is taking a three-week break before returning to golf at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. Woods announced Wednesday he will resume an up-and-down season May 3-6 at Quail Hollow, where he won in 2007. He also committed to The Players Championship the following week. A year ago, he injured his left Achilles tendon and withdrew after nine holes at TPC Sawgrass. Woods missed the next three months.

"I'm going to take some time off and not look at the clubs for a while, and then get back after it," Woods said on his Web site.

In his last three tournaments, Woods withdrew in the middle of the final round at Doral with a sore Achilles tendon, won at Bay Hill for his first PGA Tour title in 30 months and tied for 40th at the Masters, his worst 72-hole position in any major as a pro.

"I know what I need to work on," Woods said. "It's just a matter of getting out there and doing it. Just putting in the reps and the time. I just wasn't able to do it at the Masters."

The last word

Tiger Woods also said it was a mistake to kick his 9-iron after missing a tee shot at the par-3 16th in the second round. He wrote on his Web site:

"One thing I would like to say about the Masters last week is that obviously I got frustrated at times and know some of my actions were wrong, especially at No. 16. The Masters means a lot to me, and I was trying as hard as I could. I'm out there competing. I grind every day, and my expectations are to do my best. It's very disappointing when that doesn't happen."

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